2. At the heart of the golf industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry
involving transnational corporations, including agribusiness, construction firms,
consultancies, golf equipment manufacturers, airlines, hotel chains, real estate
companies, advertising and public relations firms as well as financial
institutions.

The transformation of golf memberships into a saleable commodity has resulted
in widespread speculation and dubious practices. In many countries golf course/resort
development (including time- sharing resorts) is in reality often a hit-and-run
business. The speculative nature of memberships and associated real property
transactions also makes the industry very high risk.
In the wake of the current slowdown in the Japanese economy, many golf course
and resort companies have become bankrupt, with investors and banks bearing the
losses.

The bulk of the foreign
exchange earned from golf courses and golf tourism does not stay in the local
economy. The benefits which do remain are reaped by a few business people and
their patrons.

3. The green golf package can be compared to the Green Revolution package in
agriculture.
Golf courses are in fact another form of monoculture, where exotic soil and
grass, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and weedicides, as well as
machinery, are all imported to substitute for natural ecosystems.
These landscaped foreign systems create stress on local water supplies and soil,
at the same time being highly vulnerable to disease and pest attacks. Just as
the Green Revolution is collapsing in country after country, the Golf Green is
also fraught with ecological problems.

The environmental impacts include water depletion and toxic contamination of
the soil, underground water, surface water and the air. This in turn leads to
health problems for local communities, populations downstream and even golfers,
caddies and chemical sprayers in golf courses.

The construction of golf courses in scenic natural sites, such as forest
areas and coral islands, also results in the destruction of biodiversity.

4. In addition to environmental damage, golf course and resort development
often creates skewed land use, displacing local communities or depriving them of
water and other resources. In a number of countries, the victims of such
projects are subject to police or military intimidation when they protest
against the destruction caused by golf courses.

5. The golf industry aggressively promotes an elitist and exclusive resort
lifestyle and notion of leisure.

This globalization of lifestyle is also a form of exploitation, the victims
being the wealthy urban population who are encouraged to spend their surplus
dreams and illusions, at the expense of the environment and other members of
society.

Golf course and golf tourism development violate human rights in every sense
of the word.

6. In the face of growing criticism of the adverse environmental impacts of
golf courses, the industry is promoting the notion of "pesticide-free," "environmentally-friendly"
or "sensitive" golf courses. No such course exists to date, and the creation and
maintenance of the "perfect green" comprising exotic grass inevitably requires
intensive use of chemicals.

7. Similarly, the increasingly touted Integrated Pest Management (IPM) system
as an alternative to the use of pesticides on golf courses is not a solution. In
practical terms, application of pest control through IPM is impossible to
achieve and should be viewed as nothing more than a hollow attempt to make golf
courses appear less toxic than they are.

The danger is that IPM will be taken seriously by officials involved in the
approval of golf courses. Under scrutiny, the theory of IPM can be easily
discredited.

It should also be stressed that considerable amounts of chemicals are used in
the preparation of a golf course and in fertilizing the grass.

These are toxic, too, and thus make golf courses a threat to the environment
and health.

GLOBAL ANTIGOLF MOVEMENT CLAIM:

1. An immediate moratorium on all golf course development.

2. An open and public environmental and social review/audit of existing golf
courses.

3. Existing golf courses should be converted to public parks, and where they
lie in forest areas, wetlands and islands, there should be rehabilitation and
regeneration of the land to its natural state.

4. Investigations into illegalities in the golf industry, including illegal
occupation of public lands and encroachment into protected forests, diversion of
water, violation and evasion of corporate regulations. We call on
governments to prosecute the violators.

5. Laws should be passed to prohibit the advertising and promotion of golf
courses and golf tourism.

6. Overseas development assistance , from countries including Japan Australia
and European public founds should not be used for the promotion of golf courses
and golf tourism or the construction of infrastructure related to such
development.

o We appeal to golfers to be fully informed and aware of the adverse
environmental, health and social impacts of golf tourism.

o We supported the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to
reject the inclusion of golf as an Olympic sport in the 1996 Atlanta Olimpic Games.
We call on the IOC not to change this decision, for it would amount to the
legitimization and international recognition of a sport which destroys the
environment, creates social disruptions and which is financially unsound.

o We reject the myth of "pesticide-free," "environmentally-friendly" or
"sensitive" golf courses.
The adoption of the U.S. Golf Association specifications as the international
standard for golf course construction and maintenance inherently requires a
total package of exotic grass, toxic chemical fertilizers and pesticides, high
water consumption, turf equipment, etc.

o This is by its very nature destructive of the environment and the entire
ecosystem. Toxic chemicals used at the golf course construction stage, for
example, include hydrogen peroxide to harden soil before turfing.

o Even if it were technically and economically feasible, determined by a full
cost-benefit analysis, to construct and maintain pesticide-free golf courses,
the industry is still unacceptable due to the wide range of social problems and
other environmental impacts (e.g. water depletion, inappropriate land use) that
are generated.

o We also reject the myth of Integrated Pest Management because it is
experimental, the conditions for its application cannot be achieved and it still
relies on toxic chemicals.

This Manifesto was
written in 1993

by mr. Gen Morita (Japan).

Up-date 2010 by Andrea Atzori
(Sardinia)

THE GLOBAL ANTI-GOLF MOVEMENT
was launched on World No-Golf Day (April 29, 1993) (by mr. Gen Morita ),
following a three-day conference on Golf Course and Resort Development in the
Asia-Pacific Region in Panang, Malaysia from April 26 to 28, 1993.
The three sponsoring organizations are the Japan-based Global Network for
Anti-Golf Course Action (GNAGA), the Thailand-based Asian Tourism Network
(ANTENNA) and the Malaysia-based Asia-Pacific People and Environmental Network (APPEN).
Twenty delegates from Hawaii, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the
Philippines and Thailand were also present. Antigolf Movement is actually particulary present in Europe (Italy, Spain,
Malta, Croatia,) and also in the Usa (Sierra Club association), Canada, but has supporters in Australia, Asia
(Japan) and Latin-America (Mexico).